Jun & Nene -- O-Atsui Hou ga Suteki!（お熱いほうがステキ!）

 

Actually, I had this song on the backlog for months so I didn't particularly select it for Valentine's Day, but considering the subject matter, I thought it would fit February 14th.

"O-Atsui Hou ga Suteki!" was pop duo Jun & Nene's（じゅん&ネネ）4th single from September 1969, and it's a surprisingly saucy tune wrapped in innocence as the lasses sing about a young lady who's quite the affectionate type, and although it isn't explicitly expressed, perhaps her beau is becoming beet-red. In fact, the final verse has her inviting her boyfriend to enjoy and savor her like a very delectable piece of candy. Thank you for those lyrics, Akari Yamaguchi（山口あかり）!

And yet, the music by Masaaki Hirao（平尾昌晃）does have that traditionally innocent sound, and early on, I thought that things were approaching an enka level. To add onto that, something about the arrangement of "O-Atsui Hou ga Suteki!" is also reminiscent of The Ventures' approach to composing some of their songs for Japanese singers.

Never thought that I would find a performance by Jun & Nene back in the day, but here they are singing "O-Atsui Hou ga Suteki!", and it's actually within a second-season episode of "Heishiro Kiki Ippatsu"（平四郎危機一発...Heishiro in the Nick of Time） in 1969. The show revolved around Heishiro Kujo（九条平四郎）, a businessman who has a love for being an amateur sleuth. In any case, the song peaked at No. 48 on Oricon.

Jun & Nene -- Please Please Please（プリーズプリーズプリーズ）

 

The last time "Kayo Kyoku Plus" saw the duo, Jun & Nene（じゅん&ネネ）, it was back in 2016 featuring their debut single and biggest hit, "Aisurutte Kowai" （愛するってこわい）from July 1968.

Former contributor nikala was the first to introduce Jun & Nene to the blog with "Taiyou no Wasuremono" (太陽の忘れもの), and I've noticed with that song along with "Aisurutte Kowai", they were both categorized as Latin numbers. Well for today, I'm bringing over the duo's penultimate single during their first run together, "Please Please Please" from 1972, and this one is definitely not Latin. If anything, it's more California sunshine pop. Lyricist Junichi Matsuyama（松山順一）and composer Akira Matsuda（松田晃）match up a tune with June & Nene's harmonies that feel very relaxing, although the female protagonist in the lyrics is gnashing her teeth about the target of her love simply not reciprocating or noticing. The pop almost enters rock territory as the drums get more and more frenzied before things come to the end.

Six albums and fourteen singles were released by Jun & Nene before they broke up in 1972. But then, thanks to an appearance by them for the first time in thirty-one years at a 2003 TBS special, Jun Chiaki（千秋じゅん）and Nene Sanae（早苗ネネ）decided to get the duo going again, and as a result, they released four more singles between 2005 and 2011.

Jun & Nene -- Aisurutte Kowai （愛するってこわい）

Doing my usual maintenance of the blog, I came across nikala's old article about "Taiyou no Wasuremono"（太陽の忘れもの）by the duo Jun & Nene（じゅん&ネネ）. Any presence of the song online disappeared long ago as of 2013 since I was the one who placed the unfortunate notice once the powers-that-be took down the lone video.

Feeling rather sorry for the forlorn article without a song (this will sound corny but I do treat all of the articles somewhat like my children), I decided to search for a Jun & Nene song that still has a presence. For example, there is "Aisurutte Kowai" (Falling In Love Is Scary) from July 1968. Nikala mentioned it in passing in her article, and this is the ladies' first single after making a reset of their name which had been Cookies (I guess the fans didn't bite....oh ho ho) but then changed into the more straight-ahead Jun & Nene.

This was the duo's first big hit as well as their most successful hit. It managed to peak at No. 13 and is probably the one song that gets performed all the time if and when Jun & Nene make an appearance on those old kayo shows. Written by Akari Yamaguchi（山口あかり）and composed by Masaaki Hirao（平尾昌晃）, there is a nice and innocent little tango feeling to the melody while the lyrics talk about the Charlie Brown syndrome of simply not being able to confess one's feelings to another person and having to settle for loving from afar. It's certainly one of those go-to tropes whenever a high school drama is broadcast.

As for basic information on Jun & Nene, you can check out nikala's article.

Jun & Nene -- Taiyou no Wasuremono (太陽の忘れもの)

(Dec. 24 2013--Unfortunately, I've discovered that the lone video for this song has been taken down. Hopefully, a replacement will be found soon.)

Did I already mention that I miss summer? Perhaps I'm not the only one. Yesterday evening I went skating to the local outdoor rink to find only a few people still enjoying the sport. About a month ago the place used to be so crowded on Saturday evenings that I could barely move around, but since then, one-by-one, people withdrew to their homes to await the coming of warm weather. So here's a pleasant little bossa nova tune by the 60's~early 70's duo Jun & Nene (じゅん&ネネ) to wrap you in comforting sun rays and vocal harmonies until spring arrives.

Jun & Nene are fresh faces to me, but I managed to find some basic info on them within the past two weeks I've known them for. The picture above is the cover of their 1968 album Aisuru tte Kowai/Jun & Nene no Sekai (愛するってこわい／じゅん＆ネネの世界). The girl with short hair is Jun (full name: Jun Chiaki), and the other one is Nene (Nene Sanae). Following the example of The Peanuts, the two debuted in 1964 as Cookies (クッキーズ) and even had their first single titled Kawaii Hana (可愛い花) (cover here), though J-Wiki notes that the tune itself was different from The Peanuts' debut. In 1968 they changed their name to Jun & Nene along with getting a fashion makeover. The move paid off, and the girls scored their first hit that year with "Aisuru tte Kowai", following it up with "Mizuiro no Sekai" and "Oki ni Mesu Mama" in 1969, which also fared well on Oricon, but their popularity faded soon after that. They eventually broke up in 1972 to pursue their own paths. They did reunite, however, in 2003 for another shot on stage and even released another batch of singles before 2010.

"Taiyou no Wasuremono" (太陽の忘れもの.....Lost in the Sun) was one of the top results to pop up on Youtube for the duo, though I had to do some extra searching to track down it source. It was never included on any of the material released under their name, but according this page, it did appear on a various artists compilation from 1970 titled Soft Rock Drivin' ~Koi no 246 (ソフトロック・ドライヴィン ～恋の246). The song was composed by Yuko Nakamura (中村裕子) with lyrics provided by Chiwa Usami (宇佐見千和). Though released in 1970, it still carries that pure and fuzzy feel of late-60's kayo kyoku. The bossa nova arrangement then adds some extra warmth to it. And finally there's the girls' voices flowing wonderfully in that classic harmony. Sunshine all around.

Source: Jennifer Louise from
Picable